"of administration, National Security Advisor John Poindexter and Col. Oliver North worked through CIA and military channels to sell arms to the Iranian government and give the profits to the contra guerillas in Nicaragua, who were engaged in a bloody civil war. Both actions were contrary to acts of Congress. Reagan professed ignorance of the plot, but admitted that he had supported the initial sale of arms to Iran, on the grounds that such sales were supposed to help secure the release of Americans being held hostage by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Reagan quickly called for the appointment of"
"next day, which in part prompted the House to pass a larger $27 million aid package six weeks later. Meanwhile, Kerry's staff began their own investigations and, on October 14, issued a report that exposed illegal activities on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and the CIA to deliver military equipment to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels (Contras). In effect, North and certain members of the President's administration were accused by Kerry's report of illegally funding and supplying armed militants without the authorization of Congress. Kerry's staff investigation, based"
"operation to covertly sell weapons to Iran and divert the profits to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras. The operation had been engineered out of the White House by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who served on the National Security Council staff. North was then aided by CIA Director William Casey. Aspects of the operation violated a congressionally-mandated restriction of overt U.S. support of the Contras. George initially told Congress that CIA was not involved in the operation, and he later apologized for being evasive. He said he was trying to protect the agency. George would later explain that"
"Israel in exchange for Iran using its influence to win the release of American hostages being held by Hezbollah and other terrorist groups in Lebanon (then in the throes of a civil war). In December 1985, Oliver North, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps who was serving as a military aide to the National Security Council, proposed selling the weapons directly to Iran at a $15 million mark-up. He would use the excess funds to supply arms and supplies to the Contras. The Contras were guerrilla fighters opposed to the communist government of Nicaragua led by Daniel Ortega. The"
"CIA was flying in supplies to the Contras inside Nicaragua before the scandal broke. No journalist paid it any attention until the alleged CIA supply man, Eugene Hasenfus, was shot down and captured by the Nicaraguan army. Similarly, reporters neglected to investigate many leads indicating that Oliver North was running the Contra operation from his office in the National Security Council. According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Manuel Noriega, the military leader of Panama later convicted on drug charges, whom he personally met. The issue of drug money and its importance in funding"
"Oliver North took much of the blame. Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on links between the Contras and drug imports to the US concluded that ""senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems"". According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Manuel Noriega, the US-backed president of Panama. The Reagan administration's support for the Contras continued to stir controversy well into the 1990s. In August 1996, ""San Jose Mercury News"" reporter Gary Webb published a"
"equipping, financing and supplying the contra forces or otherwise encouraging, supporting and aiding military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua, the United States has acted, against the Republic of Nicaragua, in breach of its obligation under customary international law not to intervene in the affairs of another State. The US support for the Contras sparked widespread criticism from many quarters around the globe including within Nicaragua and the U.S., Democrats in Congress included. When Congress moved to cut off aid to the Contras, Reagan aide Col. Oliver North concocted a clandestine and ingenious plan to continue funding the Contras"
"major responsibility for support of the Nicaraguan Contras' armed opposition to the Sandinista's Soviet-backed, Communist government. In this capacity, Fiers became aware of Lt. Col. Oliver North's efforts to circumvent congressional limitations on aid to the rebel forces. Fiers was known for wholeheartedly supporting Adolfo Calero and Enrique Bermúdez against so-called reformers like Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo. He clashed with the State Department's Elliott Abrams, who supported Cruz and Robelo. Fiers became party to the Lawrence Walsh investigation. Walsh determined that Fiers had knowledge of North's activities, and participated in concealing it from congressional investigators. On July 9, 1991,"
"by joining their support operations to the Contra terrorists in Nicaragua, which were being run by Oliver North. His job included air dropping military supplies, for which he was paid a significant salary. He later admitted to playing a part in the Iran-Contra affair. In 1997, a series of terrorist bombings occurred in Cuba, and Carriles was implicated. The bombings were said to be targeted at the growing tourism there. Carriles admitted that the lone conviction in the case had been of a mercenary under his command, and also made a confession (later retracted) that he had planned the incident."
"who told Posada that he was supporting him ""at the request of a wealthy Miami benefactor"". Rodríguez had overseen the capture of Ernesto ""Che"" Guevara in 1967. He offered Posada a job as his deputy, ferrying supplies to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, in an operation ditected by Oliver North: the pair were to coordinate drops of military supplies to the rebels, who opposed the Sandinista government. Posada's fortunes rose after 1981 when the Reagan administration, which took office in that year, took a more confrontational approach to Cuba and expanded covert operations in Latin America. Posada was given a"
"in their accounting office. I've seen filing cabinets full of hundred-dollar bills, suitcases full of money... They were laundering money...These people don't know they are even in a war, they think they are running a business. Oliver North came into the public spotlight as a result of his participation in the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s, in which he claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons via intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua. He was reportedly responsible for the establishment of a covert network used for the purposes"
"amnesty to and put on the agency’s bankroll important Contra supporters and fundraisers who were known to the US Government to be cocaine smugglers. Later, at the behest of Oliver North, the Reagan Administration began to use Contra drug money to support the anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels' efforts against the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas were hated by successive Democratic and Republican U.S. administrations for the 1978-79 Sandinista Revolution (the overthrowing of the U.S.-sponsored brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua) and for their support of worker and peasant revolutions developing throughout Central and South America. Blandon, a cocaine smuggler who founded"
"ruled out the ""arms for hostages"" explanation by which the Reagan administration sought to excuse its behavior. The plan was later complicated in late 1985, when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council diverted a portion of the proceeds from the Iranian weapon sales to fund the Contras, a group of anti-Sandinista rebel fighters, in their struggle against the socialist government of Nicaragua. While President Ronald Reagan was a vocal supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he personally authorized the diversion of funds to the Contras. Handwritten notes taken by Defense Secretary"
"organized relief, began to expand its influence and assumed the leadership of the revolution. A popular uprising brought the FSLN to power in 1979. The United States had long been opposed to the socialist FSLN, and after the revolution the Carter administration moved quickly to support the Somocistas with financial and material aid. When Ronald Reagan took office, he augmented the direct support to an anti-Sandinista group, called the Contras, which included factions loyal to the former dictatorship. When Congress prohibited further funding to the Contras, Oliver North continued the funding through arms sales that were also prohibited by Congress."
"the role of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, USMC, in the facilitation of funding to the Contras in Nicaragua, in explicit contravention of a congressional ban, has been highlighted as an example of the ability to act by a ""junior courtier"" based on his position as a member of a large White House staff. Howard Baker, who served as Reagan's last Chief of Staff, was critical of the growth, complexity, and apparent unanswerability of the presidential ""court."" Historian Zachary Karabell argued that executive power grew further in the 21st century, due in part to congressional inaction. Citing both the presidencies of"
"his knowledge of certain information of which he believed the Nicaraguan Contra leaders were selling arms and cocaine for their personal gain instead of a military effort to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Ainsworth gave the FBI a list of his extensive contacts with various Contra leaders and backers. As part of Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 1989, hand-written notes of Oilver North were collected as evidence. These notes revealed who helped ran the contra war and other covert operations authorized the Reagan administration. The operation underlying the Iran-Contra Affair was given legal approval by then-CIA deputy counsel David"
"most people involved in the U.S. intelligence operations, including Richard Nixon feared that ""defeat for the rebels would probably lead to a violent Marxist guerrilla movement in Mexico and in other Central American countries."" On December 1, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan signed a presidential finding which authorized covert operations in Nicaragua. This plan initially called for the U.S. government to cooperate with the Argentinian government, which was already engaged in a similar operation, to train and fund an existing resistance group in Nicaragua known as the Contras. Initially the Contras were a group of republican guard members from"
"of aiding the Contras. U.S. funding of the Contras by appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies had been prohibited by the Boland Amendment. Funding was facilitated through Palmer National Bank of Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1983 by Harvey McLean, Jr., a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana. It was initially funded with $2.8 million to McLean from Herman K. Beebe. Oliver North supposedly used this bank during the Iran–Contra scandal by funneling money from his shell organization, the ""National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty"", through Palmer National Bank to the Contras. Nicaraguan Democratic Force The Nicaraguan Democratic Force (',"
"paint the Contras as freedom fighters. The Sandinista government headed by Daniel Ortega won decisively in the 1984 Nicaraguan elections. The U.S. government explicitly planned to back the Contras, various rebel groups collectively that were formed in response to the rise of the Sandinistas, as a means to damage the Nicaraguan economy and force the Sandinista government to divert its scarce resources toward the army and away from social and economic programs. The United States began to support Contra activities against the Sandinista government by December 1981, with the CIA at the forefront of operations. The CIA provided the Contras"
"Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, but the aid was suspended when the administration obtained evidence of Nicaraguan shipment of arms to El Salvadoran rebels. In response to the coming to power of the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the ""contras"" were formed to oppose the new government. The Reagan administration authorized the CIA to help the contra rebels with funding, armaments, and training. The contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror amongst the rural Nicaraguan population to disrupt"
"paid drug supplier Danilo Blandón funded the Nicaraguan rebels in the Contra scandal, which Ross learned of while in prison when he was informed by ""San Jose Mercury-News"" reporter Webb. It also details Ross' successful appeal of his life sentence without the possibility of parole and his re-sentencing to 20 years. Ross was released from custody in September 2009. In July 2014, Ross talked about what is included in the book, telling the NPR affiliate in Los Angeles that it took about five years of dealing before he saw the negative impact crack was having on his community, but customers"
"to establish listening posts in Panama, and also helped the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government against the leftist Salvadoran insurgent Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. U.S. spy ships used bases in Panama in their operations against the Nicaraguan government, and much of the intelligence gathered by these ships was processed in the U.S. bases in Panama. Noriega permitted these activities despite the Panama Canal treaties restricting the use of the U.S. bases to protecting the canal. Noriega had a working relationship with U.S. Colonel Oliver North by 1985. Noriega offered to help North assassinate or sabotage Sandinista leaders in return for North"
"defraud the United States by channeling the profits from US arms sales to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. After his trial and felony convictions, all convictions were reversed on appeal. North received the following military awards and decorations: North came into the public spotlight as a result of his participation in the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal during the Reagan administration, in which he claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons through intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua. It was alleged that he was responsible for the establishment of a covert network"
"Danilo Blandón Webb researches Blandón and comes across the pending case of ""Freeway"" Rick Ross who is stunned to learn that Blandón is a paid informant. Armed with this knowledge, Ross' attorney is able to elicit from Blandón under oath the outlines of the conspiracy: With support from the Central Intelligence Agency, Blandón and his partners smuggled cocaine into the U.S. and used the profits to benefit the Nicaraguan Contras. Webb travels to a prison in Managua and speaks to Blandón's partner Norwin Meneses who confirms Oliver North's involvement in the basic ""drugs for guns"" scheme to use profits from"
"National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL) was a shell company used by Oliver North to provide funds and support the Contras who were fighting the left-wing Sandinista government. The company was a way for wealthy American citizens who were sympathetic to Reagan’s Contra policy to donate large sums of money and arms to Nicaragua. The company used the International Business Communications (IBC) to funnel money to the Contras. The company was created in 1984 by Carl Channell and Richard R. Miller. The company used education and general public as a"
"to meet with Israelis and Ghorbanifar in an attempt to persuade the Iranian to use his influence to release the hostages before any arms transactions occurred; this plan was rejected by Ghorbanifar. On the day of McFarlane's resignation, Oliver North, a military aide to the United States National Security Council (NSC), proposed a new plan for selling arms to Iran, which included two major adjustments: instead of selling arms through Israel, the sale was to be direct, and a portion of the proceeds would go to Contras, or Nicaraguan paramilitary fighters waging guerrilla warfare against the democratically elected Sandinista government,"
"and economic deprivation. Contras The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction junta in Nicaragua. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance. During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the Contras committed a large number of human rights violations and used terrorist tactics, carrying out more than 1300 terrorist attacks. These actions were frequently"
"the NSC having ""gone operational."" In ""Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987"", journalist Bob Woodward chronicled the role of the CIA in facilitating the transfer of funds from the Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras spearheaded by Oliver North. According to Woodward, then–Director of the CIA William J. Casey admitted to him in February 1987 that he was aware of the diversion of funds to the contras. The controversial admission occurred while Casey was hospitalized for a stroke, and, according to his wife, was unable to communicate. On 6 May 1987, William Casey died the day after"
"mining of Nicaraguan ports became public knowledge, and a report of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research commissioned by the State Department found that Reagan had exaggerated claims about Soviet interference in Nicaragua. Congress cut off all funds for the contras in 1985 with the third Boland Amendment. As a result, the Reagan administration sought to provide funds from other sources. Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million was routed through third countries and $2.7 million through private sources. These funds were run through the National Security Council, by Lt. Col. Oliver North, who created an organization called ""The Enterprise"" which"
"Noriega made money off of every transaction in the country may have been cultivated by Noriega himself. Among opposition leaders in Panama he was seen variously as a sexual pervert, as a sadist, and a rapist. Within U.S. government circles contradictory images abounded; Noriega was seen as a CIA spy, a drug trafficker, a nationalist supporting Torrijos, an ally of Cuba, and an ally of Oliver North and the Contras. He was perceived as a trusted collaborator in the war against drugs, even as the DEA was investigating him for involvement in smuggling. By the time of his removal he"
"front for their backdoor operations. The company was exempted for taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The private fundraisers were considered “ground troops” for Oliver North and Richard Secord’s operations. The organization had close ties to the White House which was imperative for the funding. The funds were from the NEPL and sent directly to the Contras. In 1985, Channell organized an operation to support a ``Nicaraguan Refugee Fund Dinner<nowiki>""</nowiki>. The dinner was intended to raise money to fund the Contras. The company began giving Adolfo Calero public relations advice to the Calero’s Nicaraguan Development Council and"
"Bush, but later retracted this statement as well, saying he was not sure. Hasenfus was charged with ""terrorism, conspiracy and disturbing public security"". Hasenfus stated that he was sure, however, that the operation to supply the Contras with weapons, named Enterprise, was ultimately supervised by the U.S. government. The capture of Hasenfus provided direct evidence of a link between the Contras, and the U.S. government and the Reagan White house; documents found on the dead men linked them to Oliver North. Hasenfus was tried in Nicaragua, and on November 15, 1986, sentenced to 30 years in prison for terrorism and"
"Oliver North wrote about a call from a retired Air Force general named Richard Second. The two of them discussed a Honduran arms warehouse where the contras planned to purchase weapons. According to the notebook, Secord told North that ""14 M to finance [the arms in the warehouse] came from drugs."" On August 9, 1985, Oliver North summarized a meeting with Robert Owen about his liaison with the contras. The two of them discussed a plane that was used by Mario Calero that transport supplies from New Orleans to contras in Honduras. North writes: ""Honduran DC-6 which is being used"